H.U. Press Shipping Outlet Realigns Middle Management

Frequent delays in shipping book orders have forced Technical Impex Corporation (TIC)--the new warehouse outlet for the Harvard University Press--to reorganize its management structure so contract deadlines can be met.

TIC's agreement with the Press calls for books to be shipped within 72 hours. Since March, when the Press completed its warehouse transfer. TIC has handled orders on schedule only in late August.

Steven S. J. Hall, vice president for Administration and an ex officio member of the Press's board of directors, said Tuesday that TIC instituted the management changes after he and Bryan Murphy. Press operations manager, sent letters to TIC criticizing the corporation's "weak middle management."

"Holt (Roland B. Holt, president of TIC) promised to bring in two business school men." Hall said. "Since we comprise 30 per cent of TIC's business now, they just didn't need a large management staff before they had us."

Acting on Hall's suggestion, Holt began interviewing for middle management positions in April, and in July hired David Tebo, a business school graduate, to handle TIC's arrangement with the Press.

"There has been a radical difference in TIC's efficiency between July and September," Murphy said. "TIC's operation is continually improving."

Murphy said TIC is presently handling 75 per cent of the Press's orders in 4 days.

The Press contracted TIC last January after a year-long study revealed TIC would save the Press $200,000. The new warehouse also handles the Press's inventory and accounts receivable, using a highly computerized system.

The switch from Harvard's to the TIC's computer caused many of the delays in March and April. "We had to re-program 15,000 bits of information," Murphy said. "Some errors were bound to occur."

But the shipping time for book orders deteriorated instead of improving. In April, TIC sent 50 per cent of all orders in four days. By August I. Murphy says, the shipping figure had fallen to 50 per cent in nine days.

"We're not satisfied with the service we're received" Hall said. "But we're far better off with HC than we were in our own warehouse."

"It we don't get the service we want, however, we'll pull right out of HC and go back to the Harvard computer," he added